COOKING THE CATCH

Sole with mushrooms, samphire and brown shrimp butter sauce

Andrew Maxwell

A few weeks ago, I took a group of our Diploma students at Tante Marie Culinary Academy on a visit to Shipton Mill, a traditional flour mill which has been operating for many centuries – it is even referenced in the Doomsday Book in 1086. The flours they produce are special and it is an interesting fact that very often, people who suffer wheat intolerance can actually eat Shipton Mill flour... more often than not, it is the processing of lesser quality flours which people react to.

Bread needs only 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. (In fact, even the yeast can sometimes be omitted, or added by utilising natural yeasts which exist in the atmosphere around us). Go to the best supermarket and pick up a loaf of their 'Waitrose extra special, rolled on the breasts of virgins sour dough' and see how many ingredients are listed on the packaging. (If you can't be bothered, I'll tell you: 18... yes, 18 ingredients, including emulsifier mono and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, yeast, flour treatment agent ascorbic acid). And we wonder why people have 'wheat' intolerances?...

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